Wyoming Cloud Seeding Project Continues Despite Drought

Drought conditions have posed a challenge but have not stopped Wyoming's ambitious cloud-seeding research project. The state has invested about $13 million since 2005 in the project, which seeks to determine whether dispersing certain substances in the atmosphere can increase snowfall and the amount of snow pack in several of the state's mountain ranges. Nearly all of Wyoming is experiencing drought conditions.

But Barry Lawrence of the Wyoming Water Development Office says the research project is still on schedule and there are no plans to extend the study. The project is scheduled to be completed in March 2014. A related University of Wyoming research project that is monitoring the cloud seeding wasn't able to get enough data last winter because of the dry conditions and was extended into this winter.